A Latino White House "Champion of Change" Works the Other Side of Silicon Valley

@giorodriguez San Jose pastor Danny Sanchez has a different kind ministry. And it’s in a different part of Silicon Valley.

the pastor

It's a hot Thursday afternoon, and I am walking the streets in the South First Street section of San Jose. I should be afraid. There's been a spike in gang-related murder -- six in the past week -- and the streets I am walking are among the meanest. But I fear no evil. For I am with the Pastor Danny Sanchez, a 2011 White House Champion of Change.

It's not his White House cred that's lending me comfort. It's the 200-300 fist fights he endured before he became a minister in a world I like to call "the other side of Silicon Valley." No one's going to mess with us here.

Danny is a different kind of pastor. His ministry is the street. Working in collaboration with San Jose government agencies, Danny has patched together a number of services that help fill some of the most critical gaps in the infrastructure that serves both the haves and have nots in Silicon Valley. Like tending to the needs of families victimized by gang-related violence. And like responding to the challenges of keeping violence in check before a gang decides to retaliate for a crime (which sometimes happens at funerals). In between, Danny, as you can imagine, walks the streets, checking in on the many kids in his “church,” chatting with the adult family members who voluntarily patrol the streets, taking the pulse on any given day, prepping for the unexpected crisis.

Danny stops a teen on a small bike outside the taqueria where we met before our walk.

“What’s happening today, whatcha doing this afternoon?,” asks Danny.

“Oh, I dunno. Making money?” (laughs)

“Making money the right way, right? (Danny laughs)

“Oh yeah, the right way. Right.” (laughs)

Not too assuring – right? -- but we move on. Up a couple of blocks is a school, where neighbors come out on their lawns as classes end just to let the drug dealers know they are watching. Up another block is a public facility that has handball in the evenings to keep kids off the street. Up another block is a street known to locals for its hefty prostitution traffic. On weekends, the street is littered with condoms. We turn the corner to go back to our cars; I need to get back to work, and Danny has a vigil this evening with families victimized in the past week. Along the way, we stop to greet someone else – older, but also on a bike. He was parked in the shade of a tall tree. “Need to take a rest. Hot day,” he said. Danny nodded, taking inventory. Just another day, to be sure, where anything could go wrong. But he smiled.

Danny is the product of a single-parent home. His father was in prison most of his childhood. He joined gangs and was incarcerated every year between the ages 14 and 26. He hit rock bottom about ten years ago (he is now 40) when during parole he learned that he was about to be “bottled” (checked for drug use) and took a peer-recommended dosage of Arm & Hammer to clean out his system. He vomited blood, collapsed, and summarily concluded that he was about to die. He asked: “If am I am leaving, where am I gonna go?” He found God, straightened up, and began on the task of starting a ministry.

At first, it wasn’t easy. At his first congregation – where his uncle was a member – he “stood out.” There weren’t many Hispanics, and his presence was conspicuous (i.e., uncomfortable). He tried a couple of things – including a ministry focused on alcoholism. But it wasn’t until a few years ago, when he attended an open meeting with the San Jose Mayor’s Task Force on Gang Prevention, that he found his calling. He quickly began putting together a series of programs – starting with the City Peace Project – that fill the gaps that exist in San Jose in engaging the people at war with one another. The project, and Danny, take inspiration from Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

Danny indeed is a peacemaker, and for his path breaking work in quelling and attending to the effects of city violence, the White House recognized him in 2011. Beyond that, there are three things I like about Danny’s narrative. First, Danny’s position on the social graph – the impact he has on the world -- is something that deserves the attention of Silicon Valley Latinos, a group that is beginning to get a lot of attention lately but mostly because of its impact on tech. Danny, as I noted, serves the other side of Silicon Valley, a side that rarely gets attention but defines a large part of the reality of life for Silicon Valley Latinos. Just as we honor achievement in Hispanic technology entrepreneurship, we need to honor achievement in Hispanic social entrepreneurship. Second, the fact that Danny comes from the world of faith-based activism is also noteworthy. Danny is not just a man of the cloth. He is also a man of action. At a time when government organizations are beginning to understand that power of faith-based action -- and at a time when another denomination, the action-based Jesuit order, is getting more attention because of the recent elevation of one of its own -- Danny’s story is especially compelling. Faith plus action is looking like a really good thing.

the vigil

But in the end, what I most like about Danny’s story is that he is taking it to the streets. As I have often argued, here on this blog and elsewhere, if you want to make a difference in this world, you will need to take yourself offline. It’s a lesson that has even greater value in Silicon Valley, a place that has mostly championed online engagement. When thinking of Danny, I am reminded of an article by The New Yorker’s George Packer, which a Latino friend (radio host/writer/artist Sergio Munoz) recently forwarded to me. In that article, Packer –who recently published The Unwinding, a tragic chronicle of the lives of several Americans left behind in the wake of the global recession – observes, "if this new generation of smart, wealthy, successful tech leaders want to make a difference in terms of policy, it's the right idea to leave their cool headquarters and gorgeous campuses and actually engage." Danny has never worked in cool headquarters, or gorgeous campuses.

Let him be an inspiration (kick in the ass) to us all.

Giovanni Rodriguez is founder of The Silicon Valley Story Lab, a new venture that provides branding, positioning, and community-driven growth strategies to organizations in markets that matter. A pioneer in an emerging approach to marketing he calls "community story design,"...